Intreocular Lens

murrayp4

Does anyone here have experience or know anyone with a phakic iol implant??
How are they getting on with it?

badolepuddytat

Just bumping this up as I'd also be interested in peoples experiences, am too short sighted for laser surg.

rubyred

Hi. I just had to log in to answer your post.

I had the phakic lens implants in December 2007. My eyes were way too bad for lasik - shortsighted plus very bad astigmatism.

If you want, I can post again and go into all the details etc. but to keep it short - it's the best decision I ever made. It was more expensive than lasek/ik but worth every cent. I now have better than 20/20 vision and absolutely no problems. I had a general anaesthetic - woke up too scared to open my eyes in case it had all gone wrong - and then finally opened them and it was like magic.

If you want me to post up how the op went, the build up to the op, the aftercare, any side effects etc, let me know.

murrayp4

Hi, I'd love to know the details. Where you had it done, prescription etc... Cheers

rubyred

No worries. I’ll try to keep this fairly short.

The operation is available over here in Ireland but there seem to be only a couple of surgeons with quite a long waiting list. Also the surgery seemed to be pretty much unheard of over here – even by several Lasik surgeon.

A surgeon in Manchester was recommended to me. In fact, he was the first surgeon in the world to implant a contact lens and actually helped design the lenses in the first place. He is one of the leading refractive surgeons in the UK and all my research only turned up positive reviews.

I went over for my consultation, which took several hours, and had about 15 different machines check and measure my eyes. I actually can’t remember for definite anymore (and I wore glasses from 4 to 25!) but my prescription was something like: left eye -2 shortsighted & -4.5 astigmatism and right eye -4 shortsighted & -5.8 astigmatism. I was tried to wear toric contact lenses but my astigmatism was so bad they just spun round every time I blinked making my eyes really dry and making my vision blurry / perfect every other blink – very frustrating.

I went over for the op – had my eyes checked again, checked into to the private clinic and signed my waivers (very scary). Just before the op, they numbed my eyes and, while I keep my eyes opened and looked straight ahead, they scratched a little line on each eye where the incision would be made. Then I got knocked out! They did one eye in one operating theatre, then brought me out (I was still asleep), scrubbed up in new gowns etc., cover the finished eye and uncovered the other eye and brought me into another operating theatre with all new instruments to do the other eye. Apparently he does this so that there can be no risk of contamination between the eyes.

Anyways, I came round and had these two plastic shields taped to my face to cover my eyes. I was too scared to open my eyes at first, but then I did and I could see. It was a bit hazy at first, because of the plastic shields and also the dried tears & goop around my eyes, but it was like magic.

The surgeon checked me that night and again the next morning before I flew home. I had someone fly home with me. My pupils were massive for about four days – I looked like I was stoned!! I had to wear sunglasses all the time for the first 3 days and then just in brightly lit rooms or outside if it was sunny. My eyes are still slightly more sensitive to light than they were before the operation – i.e. I have to carry my sunglasses with me and put them on when its sunny outside otherwise I get a bit of headache from squinting.

There was no pain at all just some discomfort - sort of like the feeling when you have something in your eye. My eyes watered a lot for the first day. After the first day, they were a bit dry and scratchy for a week but the drops helped keep them fairly moist. Supposedly one side effect can be dry eye syndrome but I had dry eyes before the op and since a few months after the op haven't had any dryness.

It’s a bit of a nuisance after the operation as you have to put in two kinds of drops every hour but you mustn’t let the tip of the bottle touch your eye in case you transfer from one eye to the other and you have to wipe around them with sterilised water and sterilised cotton wool morning and evening (a new piece of wet cotton wool for every wipe) as they were a bit gunky first thing every morning. I also had to wear plastic shields at night for two weeks to prevent rubbing my eyes in my sleep. Also, if you are a girl, no eye makeup for two weeks before operation to make sure eyes are perfectly clean and then no makeup at all after operation for two weeks and no eye makeup for at least one month.

I went back for a check-up after about 8 weeks and then again at 6 months. I’ve no bad side effects. My vision is still better than 20/20.
It was fairly expensive compared to the lasik etc. but I don’t regret a single penny of it. Also, it is reversible so if your eyes change significantly as you get older, you can have the lenses replaced for different ones (obviously expensive and maybe more risky with each subsequent operation).

P.S. Apologies for any typos but I only typed this one week ago for someone else but forgot to save it so had to re-type.

Edited to explain my reason for having intraoccular lenses rather than laser
I know my prescription wasn't horrendous but my corneas were too thin for laser. If they lasered off enough to give me good vision, my corneas would have been so thin that I would have had eye infections all the time and possibly lost my sight due to recurrent eye infection.

thekooman

hi all,
my wife had the artisan lens implant in 1 eye... too scared to get the 2 done at the same time. she got it done in Jan 2008 and it has been a good success. the one downside is the halo she gets at night time from lights. the procedure was completed in the Wellington clinic.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055157630
This was a post i had before and after she got it done. She also got back 750 euro in her tax so this brought the cost down even further. she is delighted with it so far.

ewj1978

hi all.

Only just discovered this option yesterday and I've been looking it up on the web. Has anyone else had the procedure and what were the results? I'm borderline for Laser surgery so until yesterday I was going to put up with the glasses and contacts for the rest of my life..:(

I've contacted The Wellington Eye clinic and the costing is more or less similar to Laser but VHI do not cover for it... which is a bit strange..

thanks.

Jim.

P.s its the Phakic implants I'm interested in as its fully reversible. I'll have to wait for the consultation to decide whether to go for this or The lens replacement.

thekooman

as i was saying Jim, there is a tax refund on the cost which was about 750 so that might help.

Lisie247

ewj1978 wrote: »

hi all.

Only just discovered this option yesterday and I've been looking it up on the web. Has anyone else had the procedure and what were the results? I'm borderline for Laser surgery so until yesterday I was going to put up with the glasses and contacts for the rest of my life..:(

I've contacted The Wellington Eye clinic and the costing is more or less similar to Laser but VHI do not cover for it... which is a bit strange..

thanks.

Jim.

P.s its the Phakic implants I'm interested in as its fully reversible. I'll have to wait for the consultation to decide whether to go for this or The lens replacement.

I went for phakic implants last week in the Mater private. Got my left eye done and will get the right eye done next Tuesday. Have to say its amazing!! At the moment im wearing glasses with one lens popped out so its a bit weird but it will be worth it when i get the right one done.

But just to warn ppl- this is serious surgery and should be considered thoroughly- it was a bit scary going under the anesthetic and I felt very groggy for about 3 days afterwards. I wasn't in pain but felt quite run down. I was in hospital from 7am until 5.30pm so it was a long day- bear in mind that you cant get out of bed for a few hours after the anesthetic...but im stil glad i went ahead with it.

sashad81

Hi lisie got the artisan lens done yesterday very very blurry still i had five stitches im really anxious to know how my eyes will improve over the next few days or if they will even improve in any way before the stitches come out next week while im getting the other eye done. Anyone with any info would be greatly appreciated im not looking for medical advice just other peoples experiences who have had this type of surgery

thekooman

hi sashad. i hope all has been going well since your pm's last week.

sashad81

thekooman wrote: »

hi sashad. i hope all has been going well since your pm's last week.

hi there well vision seems to be good up close but distance is very blurry still. Back up to get the other one done day this wednesday and he is taking a few stitches out of this eye. Distance seems like its going to be a problem but maby its just me just seems things dont look quite big enough i understand the blur will go but the vision cant really get more magnified though. Maby im just being silly and not having enough patience as we said before too much time to think maby: )

Shazamm

can you give us an update sashad81?